This Nintendo Switch adapter promises Bluetooth audio support

The Nintendo Switch is the perfect travel companion, but it’s desperately lacking in one key area: wireless headphone support. Nintendo added support for wireless headphones via USB dongles last November, but only if you a USB Type-A to USB-C adapter to plug your headphone’s dongle into the Switch console’s port. Right now, the Switch does not support Bluetooth accessories. But a Kickstarter campaign from a team named Human Things aims to remedy that with their new device Genki.

Launched last month on the crowdfunding site, Genki is a simple dongle for the Switch that promises support for Bluetooth 5.0 and multi-user audio so two audio devices can connect at the same time. It plugs in via the Switch’s USB-C port and doesn’t require its own battery, with the team behind Genki claiming it draws only a small amount of power from the console itself when in handheld mode. (0.02 watts to be exact.) The adapter can also be plugged into a docked Switch’s external ports or tucked away behind the back panel, so long as you purchase an additional $10 dock adapter.

Image: Human Things

Beyond letting you use most wireless headphones with the Switch, Genki also operates as a connection for third-party Bluetooth speakers, in the event you want a louder broadcast system for the Switch for, say, playing in the backyard. Human Things is asking for $39, or 22 prevent off the eventual standard retail price, for its current lowest-cost pledge on Kickstarter, with a delivery date of November 2018. (The $29 option has already sold out.)

The campaign ends in five days and it’s well over its funding goal of $30,000. So it might worth jumping on the prospective product if it looks like it solves a big pain point for you as a Bluetooth headphone user who’s been itching to use a nicer pair of cans with the Switch.